The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless telecommunications, and more particularly to a method of and system for dynamically managing the paging and registration of mobile units in a wireless system based upon usage patterns.
Wireless services are being developed to serve a variety of telecommunications markets. These markets include paging, analog cellular, digital cellular, personal communications services, and general packet radio service (GPRS). The number of subscribers using these services is growing at a tremendous rate.
Wireless systems include an infrastructure of switching centers and base stations. Calls are delivered from the switching centers to the base stations by wire or fiber optic links, and from the base stations to mobile units via radio links. Because of the mobility of mobile units, it is necessary to know at least generally where in the system a mobile unit is located at a particular time, and to know more precisely where the mobile unit is located when it is necessary to deliver a call to the mobile unit.
In order to keep track of the location of mobile units, all mobile units are typically required to register with a serving mobile switching center. When a mobile switching center receives a call intended for a mobile unit, the mobile switching center pages the mobile unit. When the mobile unit responds to the page, the mobile switching center can deliver the call to the mobile unit.
Currently, all mobile units in a mobile switching center area are required to register when they power up or power down, or when the transmitted location area ID changes. Mobile units are also required to register periodically with their serving mobile switching center. Currently, all mobile units register periodically at the same frequency or on the same time schedule. For example, all mobile units in a particular serving mobile switching center area may be required to register every 15 minutes. Additionally, all mobile units in a mobile switching center area are paged in the same paging area. For example, a mobile switching center may page a mobile unit at its last register cell or sector and in a fixed number of adjoining cells or sectors.
The current system of registration and paging does not recognize differences in usage patterns among individual mobile units. For example, some mobile units may be characterized as low termination units. A low termination unit may have only a few, or even no, peak time terminations in any given day. Still, according to the prior art, such low termination units are required to register just like every other mobile unit. Additionally, some mobile units may be characterized as low mobility units. Such units either do not move at all in the system, or they remain in a relatively small area within the system.
With the tremendous growth of users of wireless systems, registration, and particularly periodic registration places a tremendous burden on the control channels. It is an object of the present invention to tailor registration and paging to the usage patterns of specific mobile units.
The present invention provides a method of and system for dynamically managing the registration and paging for mobile units in a wireless system. The system of the present invention monitors a usage pattern, such as the number of terminations over a selected time period or mobility, for a mobile unit. Based upon the monitored usage pattern, the system will determine the proper balance between registration and paging for that mobile unit. If the monitored usage pattern indicates an excessively high amount of registration compared to the termination and mobility of the mobile unit, the mobile may be told to alter the registration algorithm to reduce the number of registrations, for example, by telling the mobile to register half as often as other mobiles or by telling the mobile to not register at all. If the monitored usage pattern indicates a low amount of registration compared to the termination and mobility of the mobile unit, the mobile may be told to alter the registration algorithm to increase the number of registrations, for example, by telling the mobile to register twice as often as other mobiles. This increased registration would allow for reduced paging for those mobiles. According to the present invention, low termination or low mobility mobiles may be required to register less frequently. High termination or high mobility mobile units may be required to register more frequently.